It’s that time of year so here’s a review in pictures of the past year of the Steve Thompson Band.
See you in 2017
It’s that time of year so here’s a review in pictures of the past year of the Steve Thompson Band.
See you in 2017
Well, that’s it for 2016, we’ve done our last show for the year. Actually, considering Nemix was a showcase warm-up you could say we’ve done our only gig of the year. Aha the best things are a rare treat !Who knows what the New Year might bring – watch this space. I want to thank the band: Dean, Richard, Kerrianne, Paul, Lorraine, Mick, Terry and David the projectionist. In particular, I own Richard, Paul and Dean a big thank you because as I hadn’t played for 16 years they rehearsed with me for almost a year to put the show together. As I say, watch this space.
We’ll be live on Alan Robson’s Night Owls show Monday 12 December featuring just two of our four fabulous singers Mick Whitaker and Kerrianne Covell. This is a special preview of our Live Theatre show on December 14th where we’ll also be joined by Lorraine Crosby and Terry Slesser. https://goo.gl/NzMAQg Tune in to Metro on the 12th to hear stripped-back versions of the songs in our special Christmas song party.
Kerrianne Covell who hails from Norton on Teesside has been on the journey of her dreams since the age of 12.
Having won a competition in 2013 with the region’s favourite and biggest radio station TFM, Kerrianne performed at the Metro Radio Arena as the champion of their Big Audition. Supporting the likes of Pixie Lott, Example, Little Mix and many more gave her the fuel to fire her burning desire to be one of their peers.
Bounding inside with talent in Pop, Contemporary R&B and Alternative, Kerrianne and her performing experience took to the X Factor stage in 2014. Wowing not only the crowds but also the judges, who gave her a much-coveted spot at the judge’s houses with Cheryl Fernandez-Versini.
Her mother Pamela recently reached out to veteran North East Songwriter, Steve Thompson asking if he could write a song to help Kerrianne’s singing career. Steve has written songs that have been recorded by Celine Dion, Sheena Easton, Elkie Brooks, The Hollies, The Searchers, The Tygers of Pan Tang, Baby Ford, Colin Blunstone, Elaine Page and Chris Farlowe. Now Steve has written a handful of songs for this talented young singer and Kerrianne is set to perform one of them ‘Over Bar The Doubting’ with Steve’s band at The Live Theatre. Newcastle on December 14th. Kerrianne will also sing a song that Steve wrote for Elkie Brooks as well as another he wrote for Alvin Stardust. On the latter she is teamed with the other singers of the band Terry Slesser, Mick Whitaker and Lorraine Crosby.
This fine array of North East vocal talent will sing songs from Steve’s repertoire as recorded by International recording artists and Steve also tells the stories behind the songs using a range of multimedia. This is a fascinating and unique project, reflecting the creativity and variety of the North-East music scene, with some of the region’s best singers and musicians.
Steve said “when a mum asks you to do something then it must be done. I was really impressed with Kerrianne’s X Factor performance ( https://steve-thompson.org.uk/kerrianne/ ) I was even more impressed when we went through the song I’d written for her. She has a terrific grasp of melody and interpretation of lyric. Now the audience at Live Theatre can look forward to a new story, a new song and a new singer”
STEVE THOMPSON: SONGWRITER
LIVE THEATRE NEWCASTLE DECEMBER 16th
TICKETS £16
Box Office: 0191 232 1232
Book online: www.live.org.uk
We’ve been rehearsing in Middlesbrough since February and the band is really starting to sound good. It took so long because firstly, I’ve not played in 15 years and I was well rusty. Secondly, the material presents such an eclectic range that we’ve had to work really hard to get a “band sound”. The milestone I referred to is that this week we will leave our base in the Custom House, Middlesbrough and head to Newcastle. There we will rehearse with 3 of the singers in the project: Lorraine Crosby, Mick Whitaker and Andrea Pattison. As well as singing my biggest hit “Hurry Home” Andrea will be standing in for Tanya Rowlands and Charlotte Black who could not make this rehearsal. Also missing will be Mo Scott but we’ll catch up with her later. You may have spotted that Mick is in the minority being the only male singer amongst 5 female singers. Sadly, Phil Caffrey had to drop out due to other commitments so we’re a little short on male vocalists. I have my eyes and ears open for suitable candidates for the post.
In 1983 I was asked to write English lyrics for the Italian finalist in Eurovision. I was up against the wire and had to do this really quickly. As I was working Tommy Morrison rang me and said, “what are you up to” (as he often did). I told him what I was doing and he said “do you need a hand” and I said he could come over and sing a demo for me. So he drove up from Sunderland and what you hear is me and him in my kitchen with him singing and me on my acoustic. Man, I wish Tommy was still around. He’d be so into the new band, running around and helping and he’d be at every gig.
Not long after I had delivered the finished lyric and the demo I got a phone call from Italy. They played me the recording over the phone with Riccardo Fogli singing my lyric. They wanted me to check that he had the right pronunciation. It sounded fine to me. However, as he only came 11th in the competition I never heard my version again. Then relatively recently I discovered an album on German Ebay. The notes said the version of the Per Lucia was not as the credits indicated, but the “rare English version”. So I bought it and it’s laid in a cupboard for years until I finally got around to listening to it and sure enough, it’s my lyric version. I’ve dubbed the English version onto the 1983 Performance.
In 2010 I gave an interview for a book on Eurovision – you can read the transcript here.
Dean Stockdale has joined us on Keyboards. The picture now featuring Dean is the CD that gets distributed around collaborators. It just never worked out with Les Watts – conflicting schedules and location of rehearsals took their toll. However, I’m sure Les will pop up later in another part of the project. Now we’re steaming ahead. Soon we’ll decamp to Newcastle to rehearse the singers and after that – the premier gig tah dah dah !!!
Last night one of the songs we rehearsed was “Paris By Air” which was a hit single for the Tygers of Pan Tang and also on the top 20 album “The Cage”. The signature guitar intro is gone because we’re doing a new arrangement in a different key to work for Lorraine Crosby. Now not many people may know but the song was written originally for a girl – Toni Haliday (Curve). However, that’s another story and there are many stories around that song.
The one I’ll tell you today is this: About a year ago Guido Russo posted a picture on Facebook and said the following:
“I was near Hamburg, Tygers Of Pan Tang were performing their show. I took this picture while the band was playing a beautiful song called Paris By Air. The audience goes crazy but all of a sudden my mind goes to Steve Thompson, the man who wrote this song so many years ago. Many thanks, Steve!”
Now, I happened to be in Hamburg at roughly the same time so I wondered if perhaps I’d been in the same City at the time my song was being performed. I checked my diary and found that at the time the Tygers were ON stage in Germany I was actually UNDER a stage in Stockton On Tees setting up for the Fringe Festival.
This week I posted this picture containing three elements on Facebook and asked what the connections were. Nobody got it so here are the answers. Left to right the three elements are Charlotte Black, The Pity Me Village Sign and Celine Dion.
Connection 1) In 1981 I went to Pity Me where there was a recording studio called Guardian. I recorded 4 song demos which my old mate, Dave Black, Charlotte’s dad sang for me. One of the songs “Please Don’t Sympathise” was recorded by Sheena Easton for her top 20 “Madness Money and Music” album. Then Celine Dion did a recording of the same song in French so the title became “Ne Me Plaignez Pas”. Celine’s version was both an album track and a single. The single was a massive hit (cert Gold) in Canada and France.
Connection 2) – spooky alert here …… The literal translation of the title of Celine’s version is “Don’t PITY ME” !
Connection 3) When my new band hits the road Charlotte will sing “Please Don’t Sympathise” 37 years after her dad sang it for me !
I posted this video in Facebook yesterday under the heading “THE PERFECT GUITAR SOLO” – The upshot is that the conversations that followed mean that Steve Lamb with be appearing as another guest artist when the band hits the road.
Back in the ’80’s my house in Whitley Bay was like the world famous Brill Building with people dropping in and adding their talent to my tracks. Steve was in the Tygers of Pan Tang and must have called round and so I asked him to put a solo on this track. I love how he comes in after Lorraine Crosby’s vocal like another singer and then drops down into her final chorus. A consummate musician. I guess we’ll get Steve to join us on Paris by Air too.
I’m pleased to announce that Phil Caffrey will be joining our bevy of guest vocalists. Phil and I go back quite a ways. From the days when I used him and his brothers, Peter and Paul: The Wallsend Beach Boys as backing vocalists on all my productions at Impulse studios, through a deal with Phonogram records, with the legendary Gus Dudgeon Producing, to playing keyboards in the band he and his brothers formed, The Lions Share. (I don’t know why people keep asking me to play keyboards, I play like a bag of spanners). We even tried to turn him into a Rock God with a recording we made at Amazon Studios in Liverpool. I came across that recording again when I compiled the limited edition “Songs with Smithy Vol2”. George Lamb was in that band and I then had Phil and George join the backing vocalists for my 1987 Eurovision entry.
So you see there is a broad range of material in our history. The most recent thing we did was the album “Sleepless Nights” by Caffrey, Morrison, Thompson. Dear old Tommy Morrison persuaded me to dig out all the demos we cut in the 90’s and this is the result. You can download the tracks or just listen in Bandcamp (see below). The album features “One of A Kind” and “The Last Teardrop” both record by Elkie Brooks on her Pearls iii album, the former a single in Germany, the latter a single in the UK and Europe. Phil sings the originals and they’re well worth a listen.